Huckabee Is Surging Nationally
Governor Mike Huckabee isn’t just surging in Iowa, South Carolina and Florida, he’s also surging nationally. The latest Rasmussen poll puts him within striking distance of Rudy Giuliani: 22% vs 17%. Senators John McCain and Fred Thompson follow with 14%. Mitt Romney completes the top five with 11%.
Hot Air quotes some Giuliani staffers who are quite confident and say that they’re happy with Huckabee’s surge. After all, they argue, he could very well take Romney out of the race. Their problem is, though, that if Huckabee wins Iowa and New Hampshire and continues to do well in the national polls, well, then he won’t just pose a threat to Romney, he will also pose a threat to the former mayor of New York.
The staffers say that if Huckabee comes within striking distance of Giuliani in Florida, they’ll deal attack him. Ok, but when that happens Huckabee already has the momentum going for him and, what’s more, Giuliani isn’t doing well these days anymore. He performed horrendously during the last Republican debate, for instance. Not only that, he also has a skeleton problem.
Frankly, I don’t think that Giuliani can afford to be so arrogant. The more arrogant he is, the more likely it is that one of his opponents will beat him.
Of course, there’s also John McCain. The Senator from Arizona is starting to close the gap with Romney in New Hampshire. If McCain wins New Hampshire, what’ll happen next? We have to remember that this is the man who came reasonably close to beating George W. Bush back in 2000. He’s not a one-day fly.
O, and if Romney does win New Hampshire and Michigan… and possibly South Carolina, well, that’s not exactly great for Giuliani either.
Giuliani’s staffers should exercise some humility because victory isn’t inevitable. At all.
Huckabee: as I wrote yesterday, I think he’s going to be the surprise of these elections.
If Giuliani’s campaign truly isn’t concerned about the potential for Huckabee to rise to a level of threatening Rudy, then they are foolish and arrogant- however, I wouldn’t expect them to actually come out and indicate that they’re afraid of that, so any comments by them have to be viewed in that light.